Intellicheck Mobilisa Inc., provider of access control and wireless security systems announced recently that the Port of Houston, Texas purchased the company’s TWIC readers and began an official pilot test using this new technology.

The Port of Houston, Texas, is a major seaport located in the fourth largest city in the United States. It is the busiest port in the United States in terms of foreign tonnage, second-busiest in the United States in terms of overall tonnage, and sixteenth-busiest in the world. As of early September, over 124,000 TWIC credentials had been activated in the Houston metropolitan area.

“Our ruggedized mobile device, now undergoing pilot testing at several major ports in the United States, offers a flexible range of capabilities for improving port security,” said Dr. Nelson Ludlow, CEO of Intellicheck Mobilisa. “We are very excited to be working with the port on this pilot program. We are pleased that major sea ports such as Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, San Diego, Tacoma, and others are testing our advanced technology…and Houston in particular, which also has our Defense ID access control system at nearby military base Fort Sam Houston.”

The Transportation Worker Identity Credential, or TWIC, program is a Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Coast Guard initiative to provide tamper-resistant biometric identification cards to port facility workers. TWIC cards have become a mandatory requirement for access to all U.S. ports as of April 15, 2009. The Intellicheck Mobilisa TWIC reader handheld device is used to validate TWIC credentials; the company believes such a universal reader will ultimately be needed at each of the more than 175 seaports in the United States.